Hacking My Brains Out
by Bowyer38
Summary: Walter is scheduled to deliver a big presentation concerning brain-transferring technology but gets sick and needs Paige's help to find a solution.


Ralph picked up a modified bike helmet sitting in front of Walter. "Is this your answer to Mr. Spock's Vulcan mind-meld? Cool!"

"Tweety, Ralph, and I have been binge-watching 'Star Trek The Original Series,' sorry." Sylvester escorted Ralph out of the room to get some comforting late-night ice cream and talk to him about how Megan's passing affected their lives.

Walter coughed into his hand trying to pretend everything was fine. But everything was NOT fine. It seemed as though while traveling abroad, being forced to sit on a congested Hechnian tarmac for an hour, he had somehow picked up somewhat of an illness. Nothing out-of-this-world, but still annoying to say the least. The presentation of the ground-breaking work he had first begun when trying to transfer the essence of Megan's brain to an external storage facility was today. He rewatched the video she asked Sly to send him after her death. His lips mouthed along with the playback.

"Don't be afraid of who you really are. You're not your brain...you're your heart...And there are people in this world that love you SO MUCH...Walter! Don't be afraid to love!!!"

Walter paused the playback and sobbed uncontrollably at his desk. Paige came running from across the hall hearing the commotion. Crying made Walter's coughing that much worse.

"My gosh, Walter! You're sick!" Paige's swift reaction coupled with Walter's sudden exhaustion made light work of getting him away from his desk and onto the lounging sofa adjacent in his study.

"I have to..give the presentation..." His cough persisted.

"Not like this you don't..." Paige gently eased him back down to relax. Walter resisted.

"It's what Megan would have wanted!" In a rare outburst of emotion that marred his usual stoic facade, Walter locked eyes with Paige.

"Not...like...this." Paige's words were slow and less of a response and more like a loving tribute to how much Megan had touched all of their lives. "Now I am going to bring you a nice warm cup of tea and we can focus on you getting better, okay?" As Paige turned to leave, Walter's firm hand grasped at her dainty wrist.

"I have a plan. What better way to present that it works, than to actually demonstrate it working in real-time?" He showed her the bike helmet and paused. "Paige...how would you like to be a genius for a day?" A wild look came over his eyes and you could tell he was manically calculating the odds of his plan's success. "All you would need to do is strap on this bluetooth receiver bike helmet I had Happy modify, and once I attach these diode receptors to my scalp, and amplify the transmitter output range, don't you see? My brain would then wirelessly envelope your existing brain, thus allowing me to virtually give the presentation through use of your..er..um body." He looked downward from her head to her feet.

"Walter O'Brien!!" Paige tapped his arm lightly and emotionally reacted to the thought of Walter being 'inside' her body. "Absolutely not! Now you are going to lie on this couch and I am going to bring you that cup of tea and everything is going to be alright...I promise...we'll just reschedule the presentation because you are sick and that is...that." Walter's grasp intensified.

"Don't go...please...I don't want to be alone right now. I'm not my brain...I'm my heart...I know that now." Walter's other hand reached out like that of a drowning man's last ditch effort to survive. "There really ARE people in this world that love me...I really SHOULDN'T be afraid to love--I'm not anymore...there are people in this world...that love me..."

Paige watched as a single tear rolled down his face and she achingly longed to tell him all the things that had been on her heart lately.

"And I'm one of them..." She kissed his forehead gently and walked away to get him soothing tea. "I found some honey lozenges for that nasty cough of yours. Your throat must be feeling awful with you hacking your brains out like that." Again she was confronted with putting on the bike helmet as she returned with his tea.

"Paige listen...just listen to me. I'm speaking with my heart this time not my brain. Don't do this for me.. do it for Megan and for people all over the world with MS and other debilitating diseases. I'm not afraid...and neither should YOU be..."

Paige remembered all the countless times Walter had risked his life to save her own and Ralph's. And this couldn't possibly work--could it? Perhaps once this farfetched brain experiment didn't work they could finally put this all behind them and get some much-needed sleep.

"You know what?" Paige grabbed at the bike helmet and connected the chin strap appliance. "I'm not afraid...let's do this...For Megan."

"For love." Walter corrected her. "Computer initiate sequence Waige Alpha Lambda Tao hypoxia disambiguation protocol on my command..."

In that split-second Paige knew what Walter was attempting to do. "WAIT!! WALTER WAIT!!" Paige, panicking, frantically undid the bike helmet clasp and it fell to the ground. "I know."

"You know??" Walter was taken aback. Paige repeatedly shook her head yes and her hair fell all over him.

"I know...honey, I know!"

"You know?"

"I know. I love you too...The REAL ME loves you too..." Paige wept tears of relief and joy and collapsed on top of Walter. She raised her head and their eyes locked once again. She too was not afraid to love...not anymore. The paused image on the screen of Megan smiling at the beach remained the only light in the room.


End file.
